Reforged
Episode 10, season 5 of War. Wow. This is the 50th episode. Woooooow. Alright, if you've made it this far and haven't bailed on me yet, thank you so much. I mean, even if no one read this, I'd probably just keep on writing it, because I've fallen in love with all of these characters, but you guys make me feel so good about myself. I will try my hardest not to disappoint you guys. Love ya <3 Enjoy! Reforged I really wish I could be the kind of cat who has the impossible perfectness, who could step aside and say, "This is your battle. You do it." Unfortunately, my life is not an elder's tale. I dart to the left, Shadowsong to the right. Any other warrior would probably just shriek and flop their legs around, but this is the cold, calculating, utterly evil, the one and only Lionwing. She drops to the ground. I'm not a kit anymore though, I'm not going to go jumping onto Shadowsong. But she sweeps her legs under mine and I get tangled up. I try to make the best of a bad situation and rake my claws down the inside of her front left leg. Her face twists in agony and she slashes for me, only for Shadowsong to bowl her over. The two of them go rolling away and I get up, wincing. Here I was being upset because I had to miss the battle with EarthClan to stay at Main with Shadowsong. They'll be jealous of me, I thought smugly. You know, assuming we won. Which we totally would. Probably. I hear a yowl and Lionwing drops. Shadowsong's clawed her across the face and is looking down, half horrified, half terribly satisfied. Her amber eyes are panicked and I can almost feel her retreating into that dark place inside her she's built to protect herself from things like having to scar your own sister. "Shadowsong," I meow, gently. She looks up and her eyes slowly clear. "You okay?" "Yeah." My legs were still a little wobbly, and I was bleeding on my cheek, but I would live. "Are you?" Shadowsong slowly nods and I feel a stab of remorse. Maybe once we would have teased each other, then talked about how we were going to torment Gorsefur and Oakclaw with the fact we brought down one of WaterClan's most dangerous enemies without them. But things were different now. She clears her throat. "That was a nice...trick...with the legs." "Thanks," I say. "And...thanks for having my back." She gives a small smile. "Anytime." I feel a little bit more hopeful. Maybe that's it. The start of something different. Not good, not bad, but different. Shadowsong and I can get past it, past all the hurtful things I said, past all the- Suddenly, Shadowsong's body tenses up. Her eyes roll back and she crumples to the ground, blood spilling down her spine. I shriek, shocked. Lionwing grins at me. Her once pretty (and I say pretty, assuming you can look past all the evil and blood and whatnot) face is marred by three claw marks. They stretch from her forehead over to her left eye, then down her cheek. I'm not usually one to judge, but it's startling. The scars make her face look even more ghoulish, the rage in her eyes all the more palpable. She steps over Shadowsong's bleeding body. "I'm going to tear your heart out," she snarls. I gulp, unsheathing my claws as I crouch. Gorsefur felt the rain sliding down his pelt. He felt the mud, soft under his paws. He felt the numb, the cold setting in. Numb and cold that had nothing to do with the rain and wind. "She's dead!" the call went up. Gorsefur felt hollow. He had never liked her, never felt attached to her. She had almost left him for dead once. But this...this was the end. If Waterstar was dead, they couldn't beat EarthClan. Then they would never win against FireClan. And they would all die. All because one she-cat carelessly let her life slip away in the heat of battle. There was a flash of confusion and thunder rolled again, lightning flaring. Cats were shrieking for someone, anyone to save them. Gorsefur was frozen. Snowflight still stood beside him and he could feel her trembling. Whatever terrible fate would await him after the war, the punishment for a FireClan deserter would be much worse. Suddenly Oakclaw was at his side. "Why is everyone just standing here?" His amber eyes were full of fire. "Oakclaw, Waterstar-" "I know," he growled. "But we're still here. And we still have a Clan to fight for." "That's great," Snowflight deadpanned. "Why don't you inform the other WaterClan cats that? There's only an entire forest-load of them." Oakclaw scowled at her and she glared back. Gorsefur was about to say something when the EarthClan deputy, the one who had killed Waterstar, yowled. The clearing fell silent, the quiet spreading out from the center of the battle to its furthest reaches. "Waterstar is dead!" the EarthClan deputy proclaimed. His orange eyes were turned red by lightning and he yowled to be heard over the din of the storm. "Who will step forward to surrender for WaterClan?" There was a silence. Gorsefur could feel Oakclaw tensing beside him, and he prayed the tom would hold whatever rebellious comment he was no doubt dreaming up. "Well?" the orange eyed tom looked around, almost tauntingly. "Come on then! Will you surrender?" And then, barely audible over the crashing of the thunder and the drizzle of the rain, a quiet but firm voice meowed, "No." I gasp and roll, Lionwing's claws shredding the tree I had been standing in front of. "I lost everything to you!" she screams. Spittle flies from her mouth and a little lands on my pelt. I try to get a swipe in, but she just keeps coming at me. "Thundercloud, my sisters..." "You killed Thundercloud!" I pant as I scramble away from her. "And maybe if you weren't such a foxhearted jerk your sisters might've liked you better!" She lets loose a wordless howl of fury and lunges for me. I shoot backwards. My speed is the only thing that's saved me so far, but I'm quickly tiring and Lionwing is just getting angrier and angrier. "Do you know what it feels like to have everyone abandon you?!" Her voice has a strange quality to it, and after thinking for a moment, I realize she's sobbing. That makes me hesitate, only a moment. And she takes that moment, clubbing me on the side of the head with her paw. I crash into a tree and slump to the ground, frantically trying to convince my aching limbs to cooperate. They start to move, but it's too late. Lionwing has me pinned, her wild, unscarred eye narrowed in fury. "You made them hate me and you took them away and I hate you, I hate you, I hate you...." her paw moves to my throat, choking me. "You're...crazy!" I spit out. She just smirks and continues to press down, slowly suffocating me. Shadows creep into the edge of my vision and I struggle weakly. I manage to get a good claw into her stomach, but she just ignores it and slashes me on the shoulder. I yowl in pain. Or, at least, try to. My air supply is running out and I suddenly see why being a small she-cat is such a risky build for a soldier- you're fast, but if your opponents catch you, you're down. "How does it feel?" Lionwing asks, baring her teeth. "To. Be. All. Alone?" And then I can breath. I curl over, hacking up my lungs and wondering if I'm in StarClan. Probably not. Somehow I doubt vomiting all over the ground is apart of gracefully ascending to the heavens. When I'm done being sick, I look up to see Shadowsong, dried blood crusting her pelt, and Lionwing circling each other. "You," Lionwing hisses. "You left me, left me all alone, you took Snowflight..." "Why are you even here?" Shadowsong spits. "I want to kill you!" she howls. "They all need to die, kill them all and crush their hearts..." Somewhere in that rambling crazy talk, it hits me. She wanted to die. Sure, she wanted to take out Snowflight or Shadowsong or maybe even me or one of the others, but she came here to die, and take as many WaterClan cats out before she was killed. Shadowsong purrs bitterly. "You really have lost your mind, haven't you?" Lionwing laughed, a high, insane laugh. "Not lost, just sleeping. Hunting. Looking for you, kill you...." She lunges for Shadowsong, who dodges out of the way. And that's when I realize something else. Shadowsong doesn't want to kill her sister. Gorsefur (and everyone else) turned to see who had defied the cat who just killed Waterstar. A slim, brown she-cat was walking towards the EarthClan deputy. It wasn't until Gorsefur saw her leaf green eyes did he realize who it was who had spoken out. Earthstar. The deputy tipped his head. "Earthstar? What-?" "I said no," her head was still held high, proud, but Gorsefur thought he saw the slightest tremor in her tail. It was gone in a flash. "They're not surrendering." "And...why is that?" Earthstar's eyes flashed. "Honestly, Mudheart, I ought to demote you. They're not surrendering because we are." Gorsefur had never heard what a stampeding heard of angry badgers sounded like. But he supposed it would sound something like the noise that followed that proclamation. Earthstar didn't yell, she simply waited a moment, then waved her tail for silence. It was a testimony to EarthClan's affection for their leader that they all quieted. "I drew us into the war because I was scared," Earthstar said. Her voice was soft, but it still rippled through the ranks of cats, WaterClan and EarthClan alike. "I was scared to fail my Clan. But in acting to hastily, in fearing the unknown, in making a mistake...I did fail it." "Earthstar, with all due respect-" Mudheart began. "Mudheart, you're on elder duty for the next three moons," Earthstar snapped. Her serene, bittersweet expression returned. "We have lost so much and gained so little from this war...I let FireClan bully me. I let Firestar frighten me into this." She gave a small chuckle. "Maybe AirClan has the right idea. No fighting, no war, no blood..." She trailed off wistfully and a young tom, Gorsefur couldn't tell if he was WaterClan or EarthClan, called, "What are you saying?" Earthstar sighed, "I'm saying...we should go home. WaterClan lost lives today, they need time to mourn. And I need to get couriers to pull back all our soldiers." "Just like that?" Mudheart asked, eyes wide. "Just like that," Earthstar agreed. She turned, towards the EarthClan border and began to walk. The EarthClan cats fell in behind her. The WaterClan cats waited a moment, then stepped aside, making a path. Earthstar walked down the aisle, and the WaterClan cats bowed their heads in respect as she passed. "We won," Oakclaw meowed, almost reverently. Gorsefur's eyes returned to the lump of fur lying splayed in the mud. "Did we?" I can barely stand, but I still manage to get in a hit on Lionwing while she's distracted. I dart away before she can retaliate, and this gives Shadowsong time to land another blow. Lionwing hisses and backs into the forest. We stalk forward- or rather, Shadowsong stalks forward and I limp along, doing my best to retain my dignity. Suddenly Lionwing stops. I peer around a bristling Shadowsong to see why. A massive hill spreads out before us. At the top it's your average steep hill, wet with leaves and rain. But towards the bottom, it plummets almost like a cliff. Lionwing is cornered. She hisses, but it's not the usual frightening thing it is. Is this the same she-cat who once commandeered a frightening force, who killed Thundercloud, who haunted my dreams? The madness in her eyes says no, but their color- the same as Shadowsong's, says yes. "Just die," she begs. Shadowsong walks forward and I think she's going to kill her. Apart of me cheers her on, but another part of me wonders if this will send her into another depression. Who can say? But, to my confused relief, Shadowsong meows, "I'm taking you back to Main. You'll get a trial for your crimes and a council will decide your fate." "My fate?" Lionwing laughs again and it sounds more like the old she-cat. "My fate is to wander this world alone until I have killed you and anyone else who dares to think they can make me a prisoner!" She takes a step forward so that she and Shadowsong are nose to nose. "I will always find you," she whispers, her words sending a chill down my spine. And then she turns and leaps into thin air, plummeting down the slope. Waterstar's vigil was a subdued event. Blue flower petals curled around her like a mother's embrace and her pelt was shiny, the stars in the sky practically reflected on it. Gorsefur, along with all the other WaterClan cats, was allowed to pass by her body quickly. He gave his respects, but didn't wail or cry or scream like some cats were doing. Riverclaw was crouched by his leader, head bowed. Tomorrow, he would become Waterstar. Tomorrow, everything would change. Hopefully for the better, Gorsefur thought. He met up with Snowflight, Adderscar, Stormflight, Oakclaw and Shadowsong. Shadowsong looked like a badger, a silver swathe of cobweb painting her spine a ethereal white. "-they didn't find the body," she was saying. "But it was such a steep cliff, no one could have survived that..." "If anything the paranoid elders taught me as a kit," Oakclaw said darkly. "It's that until there's a body, the cat isn't dead." Snowflight flinched, a rare show of emotion, and Stormflight pressed against her. Gorsefur gave Shadowsong a lick for comfort, having heard her story already once before, but still haunted by it. "You okay?" She shrugged, then seeing the look in his eyes, sighed and purred. "I'm okay. And Brookfall is fine. She's still in the medicine den, they took care of me first and I wanted to find you guys." Gorsefur nodded, though he looked a little worried. "She's fine," Oakclaw nudged him. "You're such a she-cat sometimes." That brought hisses from Shadowsong and Snowflight, but Stormflight purred. "I know...she's just taking a while," Gorsefur fretted. "She's fine," Oakclaw repeated. "I'm fine, right?" I ask anxiously. The medicine cat, a kindly old tom who introduced himself as Featherspeckle, nods. "You have a few scratches, and you might want to rest your throat for a few days, but you'll be all right. I'll get you some honey to help the burn." "Thanks," I said, grateful. My throat ached from Lionwing's attempt to crush it. "Any chance I could get some poppy seeds too? I can never fall asleep when I have cobweb on, it sticks to the moss and annoys me so much..." Featherspeckle looks horrified. "In your condition?" For a moment, I'm terrified. Condition? Do I have a lump in my belly? Some mutant form of greencough? A second tail? Am I going to die? Did Lionwing do something to me? Seeing my horrified expression, the medicine cat elaborates, "You can't have too many unnecessary herbs in your system, you know. It's unhealthy." "Actually herbs can be very healthy," I ramble, voice high pitched with fear. "They can save your life you know. One time, my mother-" "It's unhealthy," the medicine cat interrupts, half amused and half bewildered. "For a she-cat who is carrying kits." I stop talking. "Oh." Category:Artimas Hunter's Fanfics